Making Authentic Connections in Reading

Rationale:

As part of my teacher inquiry, I have been researching how I can increase student engagement and students' contribution to class discussion during a reading lesson. I looked into Sheena Cameron's Reading Strategies, to build reading comprehension strategies.  I used this information to create learning intentions and success criteria.  I have now developed this further by incorporating the learning intentions and success criteria into a SOLO Rubric.

For the audiobook Hatchet, I focused on visualization, activating prior knowledge, and sequencing the events of the story. Students get the opportunity to self-reflect using the SOLO Rubric for this audiobook which will contribute to their real-time reporting in HERO.

Planning:

I have created a multimodal approach to provide students with the opportunity to experience authentic learning activities.  I will also focus on making connections to their prior learning throughout the story and finishing with an EOTC experience to TOPEC learning bush survival skills. 

My approach to planning this unit of work took into consideration Ako: Learn, Hanga: Create, Tohatoha: Share pedagogy, building on my previous skills and knowledge. 

Here is an example from one Year 9 student, thus far.  

Brief: students respond by using images or videos on the following themes from the story Hatchet, to show their understanding of how to start a fire and items for surviving in the bush. 

How to Start a Fire:

Items for Survival:

Labeling Parts of a Plane:

I have provided the following links that have supported me in creating this unit of learning. 

Research:

Manaiakalani: Pedagogy Learn, Create, Share, Professional Learning 

Pam Hook's SOLO Taxonomy 

Concepts and Threshold Concepts 

Threshold Concepts in Practice 

Threshold Concepts: A short intro

 

Creating Google Sites

I have been working on creating a template for teachers to use when in 2022 our kura starts using Google Sites as a whole-school website.  Although I have spent many hours developing the class template I have enjoyed working collaboratively with members of the senior leadership team and also Meryn and Fiona (our Manaiakalani Facilitators).  We have decided for our kura that we wanted a uniform approach.  I know some teachers will be feeling restricted by this approach, however, I encouraged them to be as creative as they want with what they upload to their classroom site, ie using a multimodal approach; images, videos, etc...  Here are the steps I took in creating the classroom template:

1. Researched and decided on a font style and size, we chose Helvetica Neue Normal.  
2. Used Digital Colour Meter to find the Hex numbers of our school logo so I could colour match the green and blue;
   

3. Created a Google Site template, using Room 21's site as a guide.

4. Decided on the font size for the titles.  I choose to use the preloaded sizes (ie 96, 72, 60..)  and decreased the font size when moving through the website pages. Ie front page title was 96, then 72 for subpages. 

5. In Google Drawing I created master blue and green buttons.  These are for the staff to make a copy of and add to their websites. 

          
   
   

6. Once all the templates and masters were ready I present this new learning on call back day in October. 

During the call-back day, teachers split into two groups; beginners and intermediate. Meryn and I took the beginners and Fiona the intermediate group.  Other staff members who had done the Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) stayed in the beginner group and also supported other teachers  I felt this was a great start to our Google Sites journey. 

Embedding Employable Skills into the Curriculum

I have started looking into Employable skills/characteristics and how these can be embedded into the curriculum.  The 21st Century Skills that have been mentioned are:

• teamwork and leadership;
• communication;
• problem-solving;
• creativity; and
• aiming high and staying positive.

The last bullet here is aiming high and staying positive is important and one that I have come across in the past, mostly under the heading of Growth Mindset. How do we incorporate these skills into daily lessons to support students building these characteristics for future life and work? 

Embedding employability skills across the curriculum is about making sure students in our kura have the skills, tools, and attitudes required to be successful in the world of work, now and in the future, along with a love of learning. 

Here is a starting point to developing and embedding employable skills into our curriculum:

Research into Employable Skills has led me to watch this video: The Fourth Industrial Revolution:

This video is interesting because I didn't realise that the Green Sector was growing so fast and I thought that Robots have their place alongside humans. I think my students would be interested in this video, and it is a starting point to discuss the skills they might need in the future. 

Student Task: 

Interview employers - what do they feel are the key skills students need when they enter the world of work in 30 seconds. 

Ask learners:

• Were they surprised by anything the employers said?
• What would they prioritise if they ran their own business and we're looking for staff?
• Of the skills employers look for, which do they feel are the easiest to develop and which are the hardest? Why?
• What could they do in school to develop their skills?
• If they were going to ask the employers a question about the world of work, what would it be and why?

DFI Week 5 - Collaborate Sites

Unfortunately, I miss today's session.  I caught up on this learning from reading other cohorts' blogs, agenda notes and looking through a number of ClassOnAir class websites. Here's what I have learned:

To create and hold student attention, improve engagement and hence turbocharge learning it is important to have multimodal learning tools.

Multimodal learning can include using sounds and images to help foster the acquisition of new knowledge through a constructivist learning approach. Multimodal can be divided into two parts, simple and complex.  Examples for simple multimodal are "comics/graphic novels, picture books, newspapers, brochures, print advertisements, posters, storyboards, digital slide presentations, e-posters, e-books, and social media".  Examples of more complex multimodal are "live-action films, animations, digital stories, web pages, book trailers, documentaries, and music videos".

Meaning is conveyed through dynamic combinations of various modes across written and spoken language, visual (still and moving image), audio, gesture (acting), and spatial semiotic resources. (Reference: Creating multimodal texts).

One of the biggest benefits I have found in the classroom is rewindable learning, for example, using Mote, students can listen to the instructions, pause, and rewind.  Using digital technologies does not in my experience replace the teacher, it changes the way I teach.  I am more prepared for my lessons ie if I have fast finishers the next lesson is already prepared so I am not using 'filler or busy activities'.  Students who do finish early can also support other learners in the classroom sharing their knowledge and skills with others, this supports the development of the key competencies and enhances extended abstract in the SOLO Rubric assessment for constructive alignment. 

Considerations as to the nature of the multimodal components should be review in line with the end-user; what is the purpose, the audience, am I informing, entertaining, persuading, or a combination?  Who is your audience is very important.  I teach across a range of students from years 1-10.  With younger students, I show what they are learning to do on the big screen constantly modeling how to navigate technology. Older students are more independent, however, I do not assume they know how to navigate digital technology.  Students look like they know how to use technology, for example, playing their favorite YouTube video but this does not necessarily translate into knowing how to insert a YouTube video into Google slides and edit it. What I have found helpful is talking through my process on the big screen, then using multimodal examples within Google Sites.